Vandals, Eastern board same boat
Two teams that desperately want to make waves in conference play get one final chance to right the ship this afternoon.
Idaho (2-9) and Eastern Washington (3-9) square off at Reese Court in a men’s basketball game at 2 p.m.
By record, both teams have obviously struggled. However, Eastern ended a seven-game losing streak on Thursday with a 67-62 win over Butler and Idaho got an early jump on the Big West Conference season with a 69-62 win over Utah State just before Christmas.
Both of Idaho’s wins have come at home, the first against NAIA University of Great Falls. EWU’s lone home win for first-year coach Mike Burns was against NAIA Cascade College and three of the losses were to ranked teams.
“All those road games are brutal,” Idaho coach Leonard Perry said. “We’ve been there, done that. I know coach Burns is going to stay with it, and they’re going to get better. … I think they’re playing extremely hard and things haven’t gone their way.”
If Eastern wins to improve to 4-9, the Eagles will have the same record they had last year entering Big Sky Conference play. They went on to win the conference title and tournament to make the NCAA Tournament.
“We have to look at the bigger picture a lot of times,” EWU coach Mike Burns said. “That bigger picture is preparing ourselves for … conference play. It’s tough because at the same time you have to keep your perspective, you have to get better. … I think winning and losing are habit forming and we need to get back in the habit of winning. We are beyond moral victories at this point and we need to come out and play good, solid basketball and start winning some games.”
Besides nearly identical records, most of the statistics are similar. Idaho has a slight edge in defense (69.4 points allowed to 75.2), rebounding (34.6-30.8) and protecting the ball (13.9 turnovers to 18.8).
The Vandals, who lost at Portland 81-66 on Thursday, are led by Dandrick Jones, the Big West player of the week for his play against Utah State. The 6-foot-4 senior wing averages 16 points and 6.1 rebounds. Eastern’s leader is 6-7 senior forward Marc Axton, who leads Big Sky players with an 18.8 average.
Idaho won last year’s meeting at home 64-60. The Vandals lead the series 41-19 dating back to 1905-06, but it’s 26-7 with both teams in Division I.
Both teams play conference games on Thursday: Idaho at home against Cal Poly, and Eastern on the road at Northern Arizona.